Obama Speaks About Compromises

President Obama, speaking minutes after the Senate voted to raise the debt ceiling, said Tuesday that the measure had averted an economic calamity but warned that it would do little to revive the lagging economy or create jobs.

Issuing a fresh challenge to an exhausted Congress, Mr. Obama said the two parties would need to work out a second set of deficit-reduction measures that must include both spending cuts and new tax revenue.

“It is an important first step to ensuring that as a nation, we live within our means,” Mr. Obama said of the agreement, under a sweltering midday sun in the White House Rose Garden.

But, he added, “growing the economy isn’t just about cutting spending.”

“That’s not how we’re going to get past this recession. We’re going to have to do more than that.”

Mr. Obama recited a familiar list of remedies, ranging from Congressional approval of trade deals, speeding up approval of patent applications and investing in infrastructure projects. He also called for increased benefits for the unemployed and promised to set out new ideas in the coming weeks.

Looking ahead to the next round of deficit negotiations, Mr. Obama said, “we need a balanced approach, where everything is on the table,” including the elimination of tax loopholes and overhauling the tax code to come up with new revenue.

Reprising arguments that he used unsuccessfully during negotiations with House Republicans, the president said, “we can’t balance the budget on the backs of the very people who have borne the brunt of the recession.”

For Mr. Obama, the Senate vote brought an end to months of grueling negotiation in which he conceded some key issues, not least his demand that the package include tax revenues as well as spending cuts. Mr. Obama’s tone on Tuesday was grim and betrayed little sense of accomplishment. He said the spectacle of the long negotiations had left the American public bewildered and dismayed.

“Voters may have chosen divided government,” he said, “but they sure didn’t vote for dysfunctional government.”

The president is counting on a second round of haggling, to be conducted by a Congressional panel this year, to produce measures he failed to get in the initial phase of the package.

Now, Mr. Obama must sell the deal to his political base as well as the broader public. That process will begin on Wednesday in Chicago, when he plans to speak at a Democratic Party fund-raiser, which will also serve as a celebration on the eve of his 50th birthday.

By compromising with House Republicans to avoid a potentially ruinous national default, Mr. Obama will seek to present himself as a responsible leader who rises above partisan politics -– a message tailor-made for independent voters. But the deal left many Democrats angry, and analysts said Mr. Obama would need to devote some of his time to shoring up his political base.

While Mr. Obama said the deal lifted a cloud of uncertainty from the American economy, it could complicate his short-term efforts to jump-start the economy, because it cuts government spending and does not include provisions that could stimulate hiring, like an extension of the payroll tax cut.

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